Historic long lost Cape Sable Light lens will have new home on The Hawk

Fish Plant Road on the end of The Hawk will be the location for the historic Cape Light lens once it is reassembled. Plans are to construct a small building in the style of a lighthouse top to house the lens. - Kathy Johnson

CLARK'S HARBOUR, N.S. —

The long-lost lens from the Cape Sable lighthouse will have a new home on the shores of The Hawk, just across the channel from where it once lit the way home for mariners for the better part of the 20th century.

Joe Flemming, president of the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society, holds up one of the large glass sections that is part of the Cape Sable light lens when it was returned in December.

The historic lens, which was in service from 1902 through to the 1980s, was found last fall in storage in a government building on the Saint John, N.B. waterfront that was being cleaned out for demolition. It was returned to Nova Scotia by the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society, and given to the Town of Clark’s Harbour, which has been instrumental in helping preserve the Cape Light through the Friends of the Cape Light group.

Working with the Municipality of Barrington, an agreement has been made with the Friends of the Cape Light Society and the Town of Clarks Harbour to house the lens in a small building constructed like the top of a lighthouse, located on municipal property at The Hawk. The society has agreed to oversee this project, with the municipality providing $9,200 in funding for the project.

The building “will look similar to the top of a lighthouse. It looks similar to the top of the Cape Light actually,” said Clark’s Harbour Mayor Leigh Stoddart, who is also involved with the Friends of the Cape Light. “It will be like the top of the lighthouse at ground level. It will have glass all around it so you can see the lens.”

The building is going to be constructed of aluminum and fabricated by the Clark’s Harbour based welding firm Doug & Daughter.

“It will have a concrete base and a special kind of glass that’s not easily broken,” said Stoddart.

A diagram of the aluminum building that will be constructed to house the historic Cape Light lens on The Hawk. SUBMITTED

With the location adjacent to a public parking lot, scenic lookoff and boat launching area, “I think it is a better fit” for the lens to be displayed on The Hawk, suggested Stoddart. “A lot of people go down there and will see it. I think it’s better served there, actually.”

The lens is currently in storage at a warehouse in Clark’s Harbour with its components still in the 19 crates they were packaged in some 30 years ago before making the journey across the Bay of Fundy.

Stoddart said he is hoping to soon get started with cleaning and reconstruction of the third order Fresnel lens, which will require some expertise.